Santana Lopez's Guide to Hogwarts
by tardisstealer
Summary: Santana Lopez is a witch and starting her first year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Follow her on her way to discovering her own magical talents, looking round Hogwarts and making a friend who goes by the name of Brittany S.Pierce.
1. The Journey to Hogwarts

**Author's Note: Aloha. So this is my first ever fanfic :D Super excited to finally be uploading something, took me a while to think of an idea, anyways, this is a Glee/Harry Potter crossover fanfic. I'll be mentioning most of the Glee characters from the show but I won't be including the Hogwarts students from the books instead I will simply keep the following characters: Dumbledore, Hagrid, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape and perhaps a few others depending on where the story goes... The story starts with Santana and the other Glee characters as first-years and obviously, it's in Santana's POV. There are a few details I have changed, like Finn and Kurt are already step-brothers even though they're only eleven but nothing huge. So, I hope you enjoy, here you go :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee-Ryan Murphy does-unfortunately :( And the whole Harry Potter universe belongs to the aweshum J. so I guess I don't own that either... :(**

The Journey to Hogwarts

Santana was pretty sure that the annoying dark-haired girl sitting opposite her had been talking constantly since the train had pulled away from King's Cross Station 6 and a half hours ago. More than once Santana had had to fight the urge not to go ALL Lima Heights on her but she remembered that she had promised her Dad that she wouldn't do anything stupid and she knew her Mum would be disappointed if she got expelled before the end of the first week, so she had rolled her eyes and tried her best to ignore the girl as much as she could. It was hard. She had told Santana her whole life story, in detail, within the first hour of the journey and then spent the other 5 and a half hours talking about her two obsessions-musical theatre and her voice. Santana had found out that the girl was called Rachel Berry, she had two gay dads, she had been born in America but moved to England when she was 7 and she was muggle-born. Figures, Santana had thought, most witches and wizards hadn't even heard of musical theatre, she was pretty sure Rachel was gonna get a lot of weird looks when they reached Hogwarts. Thankfully, Santana hadn't been stuck all on her own with Rachel, they were sitting with 2 boys as well, Finn and Kurt. They were brothers, well step-brothers, which made more sense, they were kinda the complete opposite of each other. Finn had wanted to explain the rules of Quidditch to Rachel but Kurt had immediately interrupted as soon as he discovered that Rachel shared his obsession with musical theatre. Santana had to admit she was surprised that Kurt even knew what musical theatre was, she thought she was one of the few people who actually came from a wizard family to have heard of musical theatre and this was only because her Mum kinda had an obsession with Muggle musicals, turns out Kurt's mum had also had this obsession, at least before she had been killed in a freak accident whilst experimenting on a idea for a new potion, Kurt had explained that his mum had been a very inventive witch. Santana had felt awkward when Kurt had causally bought it up in the conversation, she didn't like feeling sorry for people, especially people she didn't know. So she was relieved when Rachel, naturally, filled the silence.

For the rest of the journey Rachel and Kurt talked non-stop about various musicals, some of which Santana was familiar with, although she'd never admit that out loud. Finn had tried to talk to her once or twice but she had quickly shot him down with some particularly hilarious insults, he seemed like a douchebag and Santana couldn't be bothered with douchebags. She sighed as she remembered exactly what her Dad has said to her before she got her and her trunk onto the Hogwarts Express, 'Sanny, don't do anything stupid. Work hard but have a great time, you'll love it!' he had told her, 'And remember, be nice, try to make some friends.' Try to make some friends. That wasn't going well so far. Everyone she had met either talked too much or were, in Finn's case, simply a douchebag. 'Ugh, there's got to be someone cool in my year.' Santana thought to herself, frustrated. She looked out of the window, it was dark outside now but Santana could see the huge castle that they were getting closer and closer to every second. She couldn't help but let her mouth drop open to form a little 'o' shape, it was better than her Mum had described it. The whole castle looked like it was glowing, there were candles lighting up every window, really there was no other word to describe it but magical. Honestly, Santana had never seen anything quite as beautiful as Hogwarts and judging by the looks on all the other first-year's faces neither had they. She decided she'd better change into her robes now since nearly everyone else already had.

Soon enough they had reached their destination and Santana decided it would probably be best to stick with Finn, Kurt and Rachel, at least that way she wouldn't get lost...  
>"FIRST YEARS OVER 'ERE!" She heard a booming voice call out, she looked over and saw a huge man with a dark beard gesturing all the first-years over to him.<br>"Oh my gosh, he must be half-giant!" She heard Rachel squeal. Santana rolled her eyes, "Nothing like pointing out the obvious Berry..." She couldn't stop herself replying. But Rachel wasn't even paying any attention; she was still too busy gawping at the gigantic man standing in front of them.  
>"NO MORE THAN FOUR TO A BOAT!" The man called out, pointing at the little boats waiting for the students on the edge of the lake.<br>"Do you wanna come with us Santana?" Kurt asked her with a smile. Santana groaned inwardly at the prospect of having to spend another half an hour with the 3 kids in a small boat but she sighed, after all, she didn't have anyone else to go with... "Erm, yeah sure." She replied, trying to offer a smile to show she appreciated the offer. They all clambered awkwardly onto the boat, Finn was ridiculously tall for an 11-year-old so he took up most of the room, leaving the rest of them squashed uncomfortably against each other, trying to concentrate on not falling out of the boat. "Ugh, are you sure you're not half-giant yourself Finn?" Santana said sarcastically. Finn just looked back at her, a confused and slightly scared look painted on his face. Santana could see a small smirk on Kurt's face; at least someone could appreciate her sense of humour...

There was just silence as all 4 of them stared up at the castle they were soon going to be living in, it really was beautiful. The boat had almost rowed them across the lake to the outside of the castle and they began to stand up slowly, ready to get out as soon as the boat stopped. The boats came to a halt at a small underground harbour and Santana immediately jumped out, almost slipping onto the rocks and pebbles. The giant man was already walking up a flight of stone steps that led up to a huge, oak door, one of the many entrances to Hogwarts.  
>"HURRY UP YER SLOWCOACHES!" His voice echoed out. Santana waited back for Kurt and the others; she hated the idea of being stuck on her own more than the idea of being stuck with Rachel at the moment so she didn't have much choice.<p>

When all the first-years had finally gathered at the top of the stairs the man-who Santana had heard some other kids call Hagrid-knocked slowly, three times on the grand door. The door opened to reveal a strict-looking witch, dressed in dark green robes, Santana definitely heard some of the other first-years gulp, which made Santana smirk, what a bunch of babies... "Follow me." The witch simply shouted out and she lead them into a huge entrance hall with a door to the right that Santana assumed led to the Great Hall due to all the voices she could hear coming from behind it. The witch welcomed them to Hogwarts, introduced herself as Professor McGonagall and began explaining the Sorting Ceremony and the four school houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin to them. Santana blanked out a little and stopped listening; her Mum had explained it all to her before. Santana secretly hoped that she would be sorted into Ravenclaw, like her Mum, but she'd always had a nagging feeling that she might get put into Slytherin, like her Dad and everyone on his side of the family, and although she was sure her Dad wasn't evil she knew that's where the most evil witches and wizards usually went... Santana didn't even notice when Professor McGonagall started quickly organising them into a line and before she could get anymore nervous about the ceremony the massive doors to the Great Hall had been opened and they were being led in, two by two, in alphabetical order.

**I hope you liked the first chapter, I haven't got a strict idea of where this is going yet, I've only really got an idea of what I'm gonna do for the next few chapters so any ideas are welcome, you can PM me :) Also, reviews would be really aweshum, I just wanna see if there's anyone who likes what I've written and wants me to continue. :3**


	2. The Sorting Ceremony

**Aloha again. :D Super happy that I've got some reviews, so thanks to the people that have reviewed, it means alot :) I would've updated sooner today but then there was kinda a Brittana/Santana spoiler overload so erm, I got a little distracted... ;) Anyways, hope you like this chapter :3**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Glee, Ryan Murphy does :( And I don't own any of the Harry Potter universe unfortunately :/**

The Sorting Ceremony

Santana had to admit the Great Hall was incredible. She'd been told about the ceiling that could change to represent the sky, tonight it showed a midnight blue-type sky filled with an unnatural amount of beautiful little stars and there had to be at least 300 lit candles floating above their heads to finish off the Hall's exquisite decoration. Santana was just staring in awe at what magic could do and if she, who had grown up all life with magic, felt like this the muggle-born witches and wizards must be freaking out, she had thought to herself. It only took a glance over at her fellow first-years faces to confirm this, some kids' eyes had grown crazily big, making Santana want to burst out laughing at how much they all looked like bush babies. Some idiots had just stopped walking and were now standing in the middle of the Hall, heads tilted back slightly looking up at the ceiling that didn't seem to stop at any point. "Definitely muggle-borns..." she muttered quietly to herself, rolling her eyes.  
>"Come along first-years." Professor McGonagall had shrieked out, causing all the other students already seated in the Hall to burst out laughing. 'Great. They're already laughing at us...' Santana noted, annoyed. She hated being the youngest. It sucked.<p>

They had now reached the front of the Hall and were all standing there, nervously waiting to be told what to do next. Professor McGonagall had got a three-legged stool from somewhere and was placing it in the middle of the empty space between the students and the teachers. She also had in her other hand a very battered-looking black hat and a scroll of parchment. Santana gulped, she very rarely got scared but she could quite honestly say that she hadn't been this worried about anything in a long time; she was even shaking a little bit. 'What the hell? Get a grip Santana!' she told herself firmly, 'this is ridiculous. It's just a house. It doesn't matter where I go.' She knows she was lying, it did matter, well to her at least but at this point it seemed more comforting to tell herself otherwise.

Santana was a little shocked when the hat, which Professor McGonagall had placed on the stool, burst into song. It didn't go on for very long but Santana had remembered how it had described Slytherin, 'Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.' She bit her lip, she could remember more than one time that description would have related to her... What made her feel even worse was that they would have to be sorted in front of the whole school. Public humiliation were two particular words floating around in her head at the moment. Professor McGonagall now stepped forward armed with her roll of parchment and said,  
>"When I call your name you will sit on the stool, I will place the hat on your head and you will wait to be sorted." The first person up was a kid called Artie Abrams, he wore glasses and had that cute kind of nerd look about him that some girls would've found sweet but Santana just found annoying. Santana smirked when the hat fell right over his eyes and nearly pushed his glasses off. There were only a few seconds pause before the hat shouted out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" She agreed with the hat, he did look like a bit of a Hufflepuff and yes, in Artie's case this was meant as an insult. Professor McGonagall had already called out,<br>"Anderson, Blaine!" before Artie had taken his seat at the Hufflepuff table. Santana had to admit Blaine was actually kind of cute, he was wearing what Santana could only describe as a half nervous and half super-excited-about-everything smile. He took his seat and Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting hat on his head,  
>"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted out causing the Gryffindor table to start cheering. Next it was Rachel's turn, 'I feel sorry for anyone who gets stuck in the same house as her...' Santana thought at the same time as hoping it wouldn't be her with that kind of misfortune.<br>"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted out again. Santana looked over to see Blaine's reaction, he didn't look the slightest bit annoyed, in fact, he was grinning. 'He obviously doesn't know what he's going to have put up with...'

A guy called Sam Evans went on to be sorted into Hufflepuff, Santana thought he looked more like a Gryffindor personally but whatever, he was also very cute with what appeared to be bleached blonde hair, 'Sweet' she commented in her head. Sam was followed by a girl called Quinn Fabray, she was your typical popular girl, blonde and thin, maybe they would be friends. She was the first to be sorted into Ravenclaw who clapped loudly when she joined them. A guy called Nick was then sorted into Slytherin and Santana immediately started to see if he was what an evil wizard looked like, she didn't really think so... Finn was sorted into Gryffindor next which Santana honestly thought was a joke, there was no way he fitted into the 'brave' category at all. Next was Kurt who was also sorted into Gryffindor after about 5 minutes of deliberation on the hat's part and went off to sit next to Finn. A girl called Mercedes Jones came up to be sorted and Santana immediately thought 'diva', it was probably due to the way she walked over to the hat and placed it on her head like she owned it but Santana had a feeling she'd cause some trouble. Anyway, Mercedes became the 5th new Gryffindor of the night which Santana thought was ridiculous, 'they can't all be Gryffindors' she felt like yelling at the Sorting hat. Secretly, she wanted some more people to be sorted into Slytherin so if, or maybe when, she got sorted into Slytherin she wouldn't be stuck on her own... David Karofsky was called up and Santana could feel herself get even more nervous, it was almost her turn. David was a big kind of guy who Santana could imagine being quite intimidating once he was older, still she couldn't help but think, 'what a douchebag' as he walked up to the stool with an unpleasant smile painted on his face. Santana had a feeling she knew where he was going... And she was proved right when the hat shouted out,  
>"SLYTHERIN!" almost before the hat even touched his head.<p>

"Lopez, Santana." She heard Professor McGonagall say loudly. She really was freaking out by this point but she didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of the whole school so she quickly put a very calm expression on her face. She was only 11 but had already mastered the skill of making herself look, on the outside, the complete opposite of what she really felt on the inside. She sat down on the stool and waited as the hat was placed slowly on her head. Santana almost expected it to immediately call out Slytherin like it had done for David but when it didn't she felt slightly relieved. But then the hat didn't say anything at all and Santana felt the heat rising up in her cheeks, it wasn't usually very easy to tell when she was blushing but right now she felt like they could probably see her bright red cheeks right at the back of the Hall. 'Calm down!' she yelled to herself in her head.  
>"Mmm, it would be easy to place you into Slytherin," the hat said softly, "but would that really be the right house? There is something else about you that tells me you would be better sorted into another house. Hufflepuff? No, no, no. Gryffindor? Mmm, I shouldn't think so. That leaves Ravenclaw; I think you have potential to do well in that house. Ravenclaw it is!" Relief washed thoroughly over Santana and she allowed herself a small grin. 'Ravenclaw!' She thought happily to herself, just like her Mum. For now, Santana refused to dwell on what the hat had said about her being easy to place in Slytherin and decided to just be happy that the hat had eventually decided against Slytherin. She quickly walked over to the Ravenclaw table and was greeted by lots of random Ravenclaws, some older than her but one of them she recognised as Quinn Fabray. "So glad someone else finally got sorted into Ravenclaw!" she whispered to Santana happily whilst a boy called Jeff got sorted. Santana smiled back at the girl, she was pretty sure they would both get on.<p>

She turned her attention back to the front of the Hall. Jeff had just been sorted into Slytherin and a girl called Brittany Pierce was walking up to the stool. Or perhaps skipping would be a better way of describing it; the girl seemed really excited and was grinning. Santana would usually find childish behaviour like Brittany's irritating but there was something about this girl that made her behaviour kind of cute. Santana heard the hat mutter something about Hufflepuff and felt a little disappointed, she had been subconsciously hoping that the girl would be in the same house as her... Suddenly, she heard the mention Ravenclaw and the table she was seated at began cheering loudly. The hat had appeared to abruptly change its mind and sort the blonde girl into Ravenclaw. Santana laughed, did that seriously just happen? Wow, that's kinda weird... The girl was bouncing over to the Ravenclaw table and Quinn smiled and welcomed her. Santana smiled over at the blonde too, who said confidently, "I'm Brittany!"  
>"Santana." She replied simply, Brittany sat down beside Quinn, opposite Santana. The last two students were sorted fairly swiftly, a boy called Noah was put in Slytherin and a very confident girl, Lauren Zizes was placed in Hufflepuff. The sorting had officially ended and the welcome feast had begun. Never had Santana seen quite so much food, it was a little crazy, there were literally piles of all the food you could imagine. Everyone ate as much as they could and when they had all started to become slightly sleepy Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, wished them goodnight and sent them off to their dormitories for their first night at Hogwarts.<p>

**Hoped you enjoyed it :) Let me know what you thought and review! The next chapter should be up by Friday/Saturday providing I don't get distracted again. :D Thanks for reading guys ;3**


	3. The First Week

**Hi. I'm super sorry it's been so long since I last updated, school got in the way and then my computer conveniently died, I haven't got a new one yet but I'm typing this up on a old laptop. Anyways, hopefully I'll be getting more time to update, it's nearly the holidays and I've got this Wednesday off of school so I might write another chapter then :) Anyways, hope you like this chapter :)**

The First Week

It had even shocked Santana to realise that she had genuinely enjoyed her first week at Hogwarts. Not just enjoyed it but actually kind of loved it. The only lesson she had found to be dull was History of Magic and to be honest that was mainly down to the teacher. He was one of those teachers who could drone on for a whole lesson at a time and only pause briefly to take a breath, except he didn't need to pause at all because he was a ghost so he obviously didn't need to take a breath anyway…

All the other lessons had been interesting in one way or another but so far, Santana's favourite lessons were, without a doubt, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. She had found the idea of Transfiguration interesting and the actual practical work easy, even Professor McGonagall had smiled at her, commenting that she had a 'natural flair' for the subject. Defence Against the Dark Arts was taught by Professor Corcoran who was extremely strict and a little intimidating in the first lesson, despite this the subject fascinated Santana and she couldn't wait to learn more, she had even debated on whether to go to the library to look for some books on Defence Against the Dark Arts for extra reading but decided against it. 'You have a reputation to build Santana.' she had reminded herself, she wanted to be known as the popular girl not the nerd.

It wasn't just the lessons that Santana had enjoyed it was the feeling of home that she couldn't shrug off as she wandered around Hogwarts. It made a change. Her own home was lonely and quiet the majority of the time, her parents worked a lot and usually left Santana alone during the day. She'd be lying if she said she didn't mind but she understood her parents' careers were time consuming, still she couldn't help but wonder why work always had to be their priority, Either way, she could tell her time at Hogwarts was going to more than make up for the dull years she'd previously experienced of being an only child. It was always so busy around the castle and Santana liked that.

Santana shared a room with the two other girls in her year in Ravenclaw, Brittany and Quinn, the girls Santana had sat next to at the Sorting Ceremony. It was probably fair to say that they were the only people that Santana classed as actual friends out of all the people she had met throughout the week. Everyone else had annoyed her at least a little and she could tell she was starting to get a reputation as a bitch due to all the sarcastic comments or quick insults she'd thrown at people, Rachel being her main victim. She couldn't help it though, once the comments had started pouring out it was hard to stop them. Still, Santana didn't really care, she was actually kind of pleased with how easy and quick it had been to 'assert her power' as she liked to put it, some first-years already knew to avoid annoying her in anyway.

The exception to this would be Brittany and Quinn though, the three of them had immediately gotten on well and spent the first few nights talking and laughing about nothing in particular for hours on end. Santana secretly liked the feeling of having people wanting to listen to what she had to say, once again it made a change, sure her parents had listened but only in a vague, distant way that meant they might as well have been ignoring her. And Santana, in return, found herself laughing and smiling genuinely for the first time in a while, it was just nice, she felt like she had been waiting for her life at Hogwarts to begin for a long time and now it had she was crazily happy about everything, so it was no surprise that she was one of the few first-years who didn't get homesick at all.

Santana had been having a great dream, she couldn't remember what it had been about specifically but she could remember it was pretty awesome. So when she was awoken ridiculously early in the morning, whilst it was still dark outside, by the sound of someone crying softly she couldn't help but feel slightly exasperated. Santana could tell the noise was coming from her left, Brittany's direction; she rolled over so she was facing Brittany's bed. She looked blindly into the darkness to see if Brittany knew that she was awake but Brittany was still crying as she had been before so Santana guessed she had been oblivious to her movement. Santana lay still for a moment, unsure of what to do, she hadn't had to deal with anyone crying before so she felt a little out of her depth. She contemplated trying to get back to sleep, 'I mean, Brittany will have to stop crying eventually, won't she? She'll get tired.' Santana had reasoned to herself but there was something that nagged her to feel that she couldn't just ignore Brittany, so she whispered into the big black space in front of her, "Brittany?" The crying stopped a little as a reply came, "Sorry I woke you up."

Santana shrugged slightly even though she knew Brittany couldn't see her, "S'okay." There was a comfortable silence for a minute or two, only interrupted at odd time by Brittany's sniffles. She felt like she should probably say something else, "What's up?"

Brittany muttered something that Santana decided was along the lines of, "Nothing, don't worry." Santana let out a sigh, "You were crying." she stated obviously. "Miss my family…" Brittany murmured before she started crying gently again. Not knowing what to say in response, simply because she couldn't relate to the situation Santana said the first thing that came into her head, "You could send them an owl?" she suggested lamely.

"S'not the same though… My mum told me a new story every night." If it had been anyone else Santana would've said something sarcastic, they were 11 after all, but it was Brittany and for some reason Santana couldn't bring herself to say anything mean to her, plus deep down Santana wished she could say that her mum told her a story at night… So without really thinking about what she said next she whispered, "I could tell you stories?"

'Did I seriously just say that?' she thought to herself immediately afterwards, rolling her eyes. "Really?" Brittany replied, she sounded slightly happier. "Erm yeah, I guess, if you want, I mean…" Santana mumbled, feeling embarrassed, where did the bitchy Santana go all of a sudden…?

"I'd like that." Brittany said, Santana could hear the smile in her voice. Santana smiled a bit as well; it was funny how easy Brittany was to please. "Could you tell me one now?" she asked Santana, hesitantly. 'Sure why not?' Santana thought, she wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep properly now anyway…

"Of course Britt." she replied quietly. 'Wait, Britt? Where did that come from?' she never usually shortened people's names unless she had known them for ages and she'd only known Brittany for three days, still, it just seemed natural for her to say Britt instead of Brittany so Santana decided not to think much of it.

She spent the next half an hour improvising and making up a story for Brittany about unicorns and house elves… And when Santana heard Brittany go quiet and still she knew she had finally got to sleep. She smiled quickly and settled back into her bed, slightly surprised that her and Brittany's night conversation hadn't woken Quinn up, Santana had dismissed it and concluded that Quinn must be a deep sleeper. Oblivious to the fact that Quinn had been awake, heard their whole conversation and had thought it was sweet, she hadn't said anything though because she felt awkward, like she would've been interrupting something… They always do say three's a crowd.

**So! Hope you liked this chapter, if you did let me know! I do loves reviews, anyways see you next chapter, which will hopefully be soon :) **


	4. Flying

**Flying**

**Sorry that I suck at updating regularly but I'm kind of a super procrastinator so I never get round to a lot of things D: Anyways here you go, I think this is the longest chapter yet, to make up for the long wait :)**

Santana could hear the rain hitting hard on the outside of the window, she groaned, a Monday morning and it was raining. Perfect combination, she thought to herself sarcastically. Santana lifted her head and looked out of the window, only to be met by the blurred sight of a depressing grey sky. She let her head drop back down onto her pillow physically refusing to get out bed anytime soon.

A few minutes later, just as Santana was about to fall back to sleep, a sing-song voice called out, "Santanaaaaa!" and at the same time Santana felt the cold air hit her body as Brittany dragged the duvet away from her grasp. Santana made a noise that, to Brittany, sounded a little like a growl and she raised her eyebrows in response. Santana glared at her and said through very slowly and quietly, "I. Needs. To. Sleep." Brittany frowned at her, "But you had the whole night to do that and anyway Quinn's already eating breakfast and she said we'll be late if we don't hurry up and I'm hungry." Santana was now hugging herself tightly as if she was trying to keep all the warm air in close proximity to her, "I don't care. You should've gone with the Quinn." she said harshly, "Now give me my duvet back!" Brittany smirked before replying, "You're like my Dad," she commented, "He's always grumpy in the mornings too." Santana rolled her eyes and sighed in defeat, she could tell Brittany wasn't going to hand the duvet over and she was getting cold just sitting there so she got up and decided the only other option was to get ready and go to breakfast. Brittany grinned in victory, "Hurry up!" she said as Santana dragged herself as slowly as possible out of her bed, "Yeah yeah, whatever Britt." Santana replied, obviously still too tired to bother arguing.

Eventually, the two of them got down to the Entrance Hall; they spotted Quinn and walked over to her. Quinn looked over at them, "What took you so long?" Santana ignored her and remained silent, signalling that Brittany was to do the explaining. "She was grumpy and wouldn't get out of bed." she said simply with a shrug. It was easy to tell that Santana was still in a bad mood; Brittany made a mental note to remember that she was definitely not a morning person. Both Brittany and Quinn laughed when they heard her mumble things about it being 'too bloody cold and too bloody early in the morning'.

Santana and Brittany were forced to eat their breakfast in half the usual time due to their late arrival in the Hall. "First lesson's flying!" Quinn announced happily, all the first-years looked forward to learning how to fly, well unless they were afraid of heights obviously. Santana was also an exception. "Are you joking? It's monsoon season out there!" she practically yelled whilst Quinn was trying, unsuccessfully, to 'ssh' her, some Hufflepuffs were looking curiously in their direction at Santana's sudden outburst. "That's a little bit of an exaggeration S…" Quinn muttered, whilst looking down at the mahogany table, careful not to make eye contact with Santana. "Hardly, it's like a million sad giants all gathered together in one place and started crying." At this point Quinn decided it was probably better to just leave Santana to her ranting, they'd only known each other for a week but Quinn had already figured out that when Santana's in a bad mood the best thing to do is to let her get it all out of her system. "Maybe they just need cheering up…" Brittany added, confusing Santana and Quinn before they realised she was talking about the sad giants. Santana looked at her a little incredulously whereas Quinn simply replied, "Maybe Britt." They had both accepted that Brittany said things that were a little out-of-the-ordinary sometimes, they didn't mind, it's what made Brittany Brittany.

They had all finished their rushed breakfast now and were following a crowd of first-years who were walking in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. Brittany was talking animatedly whilst Quinn listened, nodding and smiling at the random things Brittany was telling her. Santana, however, was still sulking at the idea of having to go out in the depressing weather and any previous excitement she had about finally getting the chance to fly (her parents had refused to let her do any flying when she was younger) had rapidly disappeared. She hated the rain. So much.

They'd now reached the huge oak door leading to the grounds of the castle and connecting with a footpath that would lead them directly to the Quidditch pitch. Santana looked out in disgust as a first-year opened the door to reveal that it was still, of course, pouring with rain outside. They can't seriously make us go out in this weather, Santana thought angrily. "Good morning first-years!" came the shrill voice of the woman who had suddenly appeared in front of them, "I'm Madam Hooch, the Quidditch professor here at Hogwarts! And today I will be teaching you the basics of how to use your broomstick! So follow me and we'll go and get started." And with that the grey-haired professor turned on her heels, confident without a doubt that every student would follow her. She obviously wasn't accustomed to students like Santana. She remained still and stubborn as she watched the other first-years follow Madam Hooch, 'like sheep' Santana commented to herself, into the gruesome weather that awaited them on the outside of the castle. Quinn rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly when she noticed Santana with her arms crossed, refusing to move. Quinn glanced at Brittany and looked towards Santana, silently trying to tell her to do something. Perhaps Brittany wasn't academically bright but she was extremely perceptive when it came to people. She could tell Quinn hated it when Santana made a scene and drew attention to the three of them so she nodded back at her and moved towards Santana. "Sannnnn…" she said accompanied by a typical Brittany smile, "I know it's raining but please come outside, flying will be super fun, I promise." Santana remained unconvinced, a hell-no expression painted on her face and her arms still firmly crossed. So Brittany resorted to tugging Santana's arms apart and holding out her pinky to Santana. In return, it was the best Santana could do not to let her mouth fall open at the gesture so she just raised her eyebrows slightly. "You're supposed to link your pinky with mine." Brittany stated, grinning, unfazed by Santana's lack of response. Santana recovered, rolled her eyes and took Brittany's pinky in hers, hesitantly. Brittany dragged Santana into the rain and Quinn, who had been waiting and watching Brittany's approach to dealing with Santana will something that could probably be called awe and a slight hint of jealousy, followed.

They had to run to catch up with the others who had already picked up their brooms by the time they got there, leaving Santana, Brittany and Quinn with the left-over brooms no one else had wanted. "Thanks Santana." Quinn muttered, earning a glare from Santana, with Brittany standing in between the two of them as the peacemaker, trying to shush them as Madam Hooch explained what to do. "I want everyone to place their broomsticks on the ground, hold out their right hand above it and then say 'up' nice and loudly!" she called out clearly, glancing at each student in turn to make sure they understood, her bright yellow eyes unnerved Santana a little, they reminded her of a hawk. Soon enough the broomsticks were on the wet ground and some confident first-years had already begun calling 'up' but to little success as their brooms remained on the ground, feebly rolling from side to side. Santana looked ground, smirking a little at how ridiculous they all looked yelling at the ground, she glanced at Brittany who had tried a few times to get her broom to rise more than 10cm above the ground, she didn't seem too frustrated that it wasn't responding very much though, she just kept sweetly repeating, 'up' over and over again. Quinn, on the other hand, looked like she was just about ready to pick the broom up and snap it in half as she kept yelling, 'UP!' at it through gritted teeth. Brittany appeared to have briefly given up as she said, "San, aren't you gonna try?" Santana felt embarrassed, realising she had been the only one in the class who had spent the past few minutes just staring at her broom debating whether to bother even trying to get it to rise up. "Er, yeah…" she replied to Brittany half-heartedly. Brittany waited expectedly as Santana raised her right arm a little and muttered 'up' in the broomstick's direction. To Santana's shock the broom immediately responded and hit Santana's palm with a firm thump. There were some audible gasps that showed Santana now had an audience and a 'woah San' coming from her left where Brittany stood. Most of the other first-years had stopped screaming at their own broomsticks and were now staring at Santana with her broomstick in her hand, suddenly she felt all too self-conscious and gulped. "Nice work Miss...?" said Madam Hooch with a smile of slight admiration. "Lopez." Santana said, realising she had a wanted a reply. "Well, well done Miss Lopez. Very few first-years manage to tame the school broomsticks with such ease." she said, her voice warm with praise but her eyes still seeming a little cold to Santana, "Come to my office before dinner this evening please." she added as she gestured for the others to continue working. Santana shot a questioning look at Brittany and Quinn as Madam Hooch walked away, Quinn shrugged and returned to her broomstick but Brittany stuck her tongue out at Santana and laughed, "See! The rain was totally worth it!" Santana laughed in agreement and looked up to realise it wasn't even raining anymore.

It was dark outside when Santana arrived in her dormitory that evening. Brittany was lying on her bed reading a storybook that her parents had sent to her the other day by owl and Quinn was sitting cross-legged on her own bed with various books surrounding her, looking as if she was trying to tackle her homework. Brittany looked up as she heard Santana walk in. "You missed dinner!" she stated simply. "Yeah, where've you been?" Quinn asked casually. Santana shrugged, "I had to go and see Madam Hooch, remember?" "Oh yeah!" Brittany said the memory of their first flying lesson earlier that day flooding back. "So. What did she want?" Quinn said, all her attention focused on Santana now. Santana shrugged again and said something vague about Quidditch tryouts, the way Quinn was looking at her, an expression mixed with jealousy and annoyance, didn't make Santana too willing to go into much detail. She was about to changed the subject when Quinn quickly said, "But my sister said first-years weren't allowed to join the Quidditch team…" Quinn was frowning and Brittany was just looking a little confused, "San, I was pretty sure you were a first-year… Is there something you're not telling us?" Brittany questioned innocently, Santana smiled a little at the question; trust Brittany to say something like that. "No, I'm definitely a first-year Britt. Madam Hooch said sometimes, in special exceptions, first-years can be allowed to try out for the team so…" Santana trailed off and went to sit down on her own bed. "That's totally awesome! Quidditch looks really fun San!" Brittany said excitedly. "Yeah. Well done Santana." Quinn said with a smile that looked a little forced to Santana but she said thanks to her anyway. "Um, I'm going to go and see if anyone in the common room has some spare parchment, I've run out…" Quinn muttered and hurried out of the room.

"She could've used mine, I have loads spare." Brittany said, looking bemused by Quinn's sudden departure. "What's up with her?" Santana asked, her eyes narrowed, "She's been acting kind of strange…" Brittany paused for a minute; she looked like she was deciding whether it was a good idea to tell Santana something or not. "Yes Britt…?" she encouraged. Brittany sighed, "I think Quinn's jealous of you." Santana burst out laughing; she couldn't help it, Quinn jealous of just because she seems to have a talent for flying? It seemed a little ridiculous. "Er, I doubt it Britt." A serious look remained on Brittany's face, "She just wants to be good at something," she said a little sadly, "She says she's gonna sign up for the Cheerios, she said she thinks we should too…" "What the hell are the Cheerios?" Santana said, "It sounds like some kind of cereal…" Brittany giggled, "I don't actually know, Quinn explained but I was too busy trying to find a grass-flavoured Bertie Bott every flavour bean so…" Santana smiled, her childish-ness was actually kinda cute. "Found one yet?" she asked. Brittany pouted, "Nope. It takes awhile to get through every box." She said pointing at a pile of a mixture of empty and unopened Bertie Bott's boxes to the side of her bed. "I don't suppose…" Brittany started slowly. "You want me to help you find a grass-flavoured bean?" Santana finished, one eyebrow raised. "Yep!" Brittany said, confident that she already knew what the reply would be and sure enough a mutter of agreement came from Santana's direction. Santana was pretty sure it was impossible to say no to Brittany.

**Hope you liked the chapter, reviews give me more motivation to actually write the next chapter so I'd really appreciate it if you could take a second to review :) Tis the Christmas holidays so I'm pretty much doing nothing, leaving me time to write so I know I always say this but hopefully next chapter will be up sooner than usual :3 **


	5. Something Called A Cheerio

**Hey readers, I've had most of this chapter done for awhile but I hadn't got time to finish it 'cause of Christmas and stuff till just now so here you go :) It kinda got really long so I hope you don't mind. ;3**

**Something Called A Cheerio**

It was early on a Saturday morning, a few days after the flying lesson, when the three of them, Quinn leading, were walking briskly down to Coach Sylvester's office which was apparently near to the dungeons, or so they'd been told. "For god's sake!" Santana murmured, Brittany could tell she was still half-asleep, "I thought you said you knew where you were going Q." Ever the optimist Brittany broke in before Quinn could reply and spark an argument and said, "I'm sure it'll be down here somewhere, we'll find it soon." Quinn simply nodded firmly and set off again, Brittany close behind her leaving Santana with very little choice but to follow. She rolled her eyes, trying to remember why she had agreed to go along with this dumb ass idea in the first place. She thought back to the notes her and Brittany had been passing to each other during History of Magic yesterday.

'_San?_ :)' Brittany's note said.

'_Yes Britt?_' Santana had scribbled back quickly.

'_Want a chocolate frog?_'

At this point Santana had looked to Brittany to try and see if she was being serious, she was. Sure enough her hand was clasped around a particularly energetic chocolate frog. It was wriggling a lot and Santana could tell it would be jumping around the classroom and right into the professor's face any minute now if Brittany gave it the chance. "Britt, eat it quick!" Santana whispered, with a tone of slight command. Brittany was about to protest and insist that Santana have it but it was half out of her hands by that point so she offered Santana the chocolate frog card instead. "Rowena Ravenclaw." she acknowledged, "Thanks Britt." Brittany nodded in reply as her mouth was too full of chocolate to allow her to speak. Their whole exchange had gone completely unnoticed by the dreary, ghost professor floating at the front of the class. Brittany had happily gone back to doodling down the side of her exercise book but Santana poked her arm with her quill, trying to get her attention again. Brittany turned back to face Santana and whispered, "Yep?" Santana looked back to the front of the classroom to check that the professor was still paying no attention to them, "B, are you sure you still want to try out for the Cheerios tomorrow?" Brittany shrugged before replying, "Sure, at least it means that I'll get to dance, that's what Quinn said." Santana nodded slightly, becoming aware of the fact that the phrase, 'that's what Quinn said' was becoming a frequent attachment to anything the two of them said. She didn't like the idea of her and Brittany becoming Quinn's sidekicks but for now she'd play along, after all, the three of them were quickly becoming the most popular first-years and anyway Quinn and Brittany were her only true friends so she didn't see any reason to change that. Quinn had also constantly been reminding Santana that joining the Cheerios would immediately boost their popularity, so it was settled, of Brittany was definitely joining so was she.

That was yesterday and today, lost, tired and generally annoyed Santana was seriously re-thinking her decision. Quinn, on the other hand, seemed determined to find Coach Sylvester, even if it was the last thing she did. 20 minutes later they found themselves outside the oak door that was the entrance to Coach Sylvester's domain. "Knock on the door then!" Santana whispered angrily at Quinn, she was frustrated, they'd spent at least 40 minutes searching for this place and now they had found it Quinn was too scared to even knock on the freakin' door. Before Santana could threaten Quinn in some sharp, sarcastic way Brittany had knocked loudly on the door. They heard a cough coming from the other side of the door, Brittany interpreted this as a signal and opened the door and stepped in, slightly cautiously. "Come in simpleton." Coach Sylvester called confidently upon seeing Brittany. Santana frowned and a jolt of anger shot through her at hearing the Coach's casual nickname for her friend and she felt the urge to say something but bit down on her lip to stop herself, insulting the Coach would not be a good start. Either way, Brittany hadn't seem too affected by Coach Sylvester's words so Santana decided against saying anything, instead she just glared at the woman behind the desk wearing a very strange outfit. Apparently, it was a tracksuit and was a normal thing for sporty Muggles to wear, today her tracksuit was red with black stripes, instantly reminding Santana of Satan or something along those lines… "Good, you bought some friends. God knows I could do with a few more Cheerios to dance in the background, some of my current Cheerios are such fatties they're becoming a distraction to my main stars and I can't have that." Santana glanced to her right to steal a look at Brittany and Quinn's reactions, Quinn looked composed, perhaps a little bewildered but either way she was nodding in agreement, however Brittany looked utterly confused and seemed to have taken to just copying Quinn so she was also nodding. Santana opted for the safe option and started nodding as well, they probably looked ridiculous, all nodding simultaneously. This better be worth it, Santana thought to herself, wishing Quinn, at this point, could read her mind and see the threat hidden in her thoughts. "Names!" Coach Sylvester barked at them, a quill waited in mid-air next to her, ready to scratch down whatever they said onto a piece of parchment. "Quinn Fabray." Quinn replied quickly, too eagerly in Santana's opinion. "Brittany !" Brittany followed, the cheeriness in her voice seemed to annoy Coach because she looked up at Brittany and took a movement to consider her before turning to Santana, "Santana Lopez." Santana said with her best HBIC tone, best to get the message that she's here to get to the top across right from the start. Coach Sylvester nodded and made a face that suggested a fraction of approval to Santana. "Right. You're in. First practice is on Monday at 4pm. I'll send the practice timetable to your common room. Now get the hell out of my office!" They did as instructed and all but sprinted out of her office. They waited until they were at least 10 metres away to speak again, "She's scarier than that dude with greasy hair who looks a bit like a depressed emo girl." Brittany commented. "D'you mean Professor Snape?" Santana asked, slightly unsure of what to make of Brittany's comment. "Yep! That's it!" Brittany replied enthusiastically. Both Quinn and Santana burst into laughter at Brittany's description of their potions professor. "What? It's true!" Brittany protested, making them laugh even harder.

The Great Hall was noisy and busy as the three of them took their seats at the Ravenclaw table to have lunch. Both Santana and Quinn were aware of the looks they got from many boys and simply shrugged them off smugly, they were used to it by now. Brittany, in comparison, wasn't aware of the attention they got, she was too busy being excited about the fact that they were now all officially Cheerios, the prospect of getting to dance almost everyday sounded like the best thing in the world to her, finally something she could do without even having to think about it. They took their usual positions, Brittany and Santana on one side of the table, sitting next to each other and Quinn opposite them on the other side, that was simply the way they had been sitting since the beginning of the year but now Santana was starting to wonder if it showed some kind of natural hierarchy forming between the three of them with Quinn on top and Santana and Brittany both below her as equals. 'You're over-analysing this way too much.' she told herself, deciding to let it the idea go for now. "I can't believe that we didn't even have to tryout and she just let us in!" Quinn said excitedly, seeming pleased with herself, as if it were her who had personally managed to persuade Coach Sylvester to let tem all join. This pissed Santana off a little, if it weren't for Britt they probably wouldn't have even have got in the door, she thought. But she didn't say that out loud instead she simply declared, "Can't refuse someone with our hotness and popularity!" Quinn laughed and Brittany replied cheerfully, "True that San!" And by the end of a lunch spent chatting and joking with her two friends Santana had completely forgotten about the hierarchy that she realised had been forming, now she was content with just laughing without having to think about popularity status.

The rest of the day-as it was starting to get cold outside-was spent in the Ravenclaw common room. Thankfully, it wasn't very busy since all the third-years and above were in Hogsmeade, probably shopping and drinking Butterbeer giving the first and second-years a rare chance to take control of the common room for once. Santana, Brittany and Quinn had managed to grab a corner by the window but still fairly near to the fireplace so they weren't too cold. Quinn and Santana were each sitting in large armchairs and Brittany was sitting on the floor next to Santana's armchair. Santana was regretting asking Quinn exactly was being a Cheerio entailed, since she seemed to be the expert Santana figured that she'd be the best person to ask but after an hour of her talking non-stop Santana was starting to wish she'd simply waited until Monday to find out for herself. Despite this she had asked a few questions, for example, "How many days do we practice a week?" To that the reply had been a very certain, "Everyday except for weekends." to which Santana had muttered, "We have the weekends off? That's very kind of her." Quinn sighed and replied, "Being a Cheerio is a big commitment. Didn't I tell you that?" In her head Santana knew the answer to that was 'probably, but I was most likely not listening to you if you did.' Soon Santana's questions had stopped but Quinn had continued to talk anyway. She even kept talking when Santana begun helping Brittany with her homework and therefore was barely listening. It was hard to listen to someone whilst trying to explain the correct way in which to write a HiHjhHHistory of Magic essay to someone else at the same time. She was actually surprised that she hadn't lost her patience with Brittany after having to explain everything four times until she completely understood it but then again, it was hard to get annoyed with someone who looked at you like a puppy would its owner. And after a total of an hour and a half of constant talking Quinn decided, to Santana's relief, that she should so some of her homework while she had the free time. Santana was actually on top of all of her own homework unlike, it appeared, all the other first-years who were, like Quinn and Brittany trying to get some homework done.

Soon enough Santana had pathetically agreed to help Quinn and Brittany with their homework, they were both stuck on a piece of Transfiguration work that Santana had finished days ago, "You're good at Transfiguration, aren't you S?" Quinn had asked her real question so obvious that Santana had shrugged and replied, "What homework is it?" She explained the work, Quinn frowning and nodding and Brittany staring at the parchment, her tongue sticking out between her lips in concentration as they both listened intently. "You'd make a good teacher San." Brittany noted afterwards. Santana laughed at this, she'd probably be the worst teacher ever, she was pretty sure you weren't allowed to attack your pupils if you got too annoyed with them. But she took the compliment and said, "Thanks Britt but I don't think it's my calling in life somehow."

Their practice timetable arrived in their common room as promised on Monday morning and Quinn was right, they had practice every single day at 4pm except for the weekends. Santana had groaned when instead of finding the finish time for each practice she found a scribbled note from the Coach reading:

4PM – UNTIL I'M CONVINCED I'VE WORKED YOU HARD ENOUGH THAT BY THE END OF THE PRACTICE PEOPLE WILL SIMPLY RECOGNISE YOU AS WALKING ZOMBIES AS YOU RETURN TO YOUR DORMITORIES AT THE PACE OF A DYING SNAIL.

"You know what Q? I think this is gonna be fun!" Santana said, her voice oozing with sarcasm. Quinn just rolled her eyes and Santana heard her mutter something about 'it being worth it'. Brittany linked Santana's pinky with her own and pulled her towards the common room's entrance portrait, Quinn following for a change as they all walked to their first lesson together.

The day went moderately quickly apart from History of Magic of course, but that was nothing unusual. Soon enough it was time for Cheerios practice and the three of them found themselves in the changing rooms, changing into the uniforms they had just been given but Coach Sylvester. Santana was eyeing her uniform as it hung from the hook on the wall, it was a good thing she had awesome legs otherwise she wasn't sure she'd be able to pull it off. Quinn seemed to have a bit of the same apprehension but was beginning to take her own uniform off the hanger. Brittany had already completely changed and was jumping around waiting for the two of them to hurry up and get ready.

Five minutes later they were all out of the changing rooms, changed and mentally, although maybe not physically, prepared for whatever Coach Sylvester was about to put them through. "You three!" came Coach's booming voice as soon as they stepped into the Cheerios' practice hall, "You're doing sprints over there with that group of fatties." She yelled, gesturing over to a group of about five other Cheerios who were anything but fat. The Cheerios nodded and smiled slightly at the three of them as they made their way over to the group. They looked friendly enough but Santana noticed them subtly looking her, Brittany and Quinn up and down, silently judging them. Santana looked around and realised they must be the only first-years there; the group doing sprints looked like third-years, at least. "Okay, let's get started." Said one of the older Cheerios who appeared to be the leader, with mild enthusiasm. And with that they all began sprints down the side of the hall, three at a time.

After about fifteen sets of sprints Santana was exhausted and having to breathe deeply for air, "How. Many. Do. We. Have. To. Do?" Santana gasped, the older Cheerio must've heard her because she called out, "35 left!" as if it was motivation to keep going, when really it made Santana feel even worse knowing that she had to go on for so much longer. She looked over to Brittany and Quinn, Quinn was pretty much mirroring Santana's actions, although Brittany on the other hand was smiling encouragingly and her cheeks were only slightly pink. Santana felt a little dismayed and would've asked Brittany how exactly she was managing the sprints so easily if it hadn't been for the fact that she was close to collapsing and was trying to reserve energy. She'd have to remember to question Brittany later once she had recovered.

"You think this is hard? Try being told you aren't good enough to be awarded a First Class Order of Merlin, that's hard!" yelled Coach Sylvester, whilst Santana glared and gritted her teeth. She continued screaming random insults at any Cheerios she saw, the majority of the time for no apparent reason. Luckily, both Santana and Brittany manage to go the whole practice without being insulted; the same couldn't be said for Quinn. Halfway through the practice Coach barked at Quinn, "Barbie! Do I have to come over there and whip you because believe me I would if it wasn't for the fact that I don't want to risk being suspended. Again. I want to see those chubby thighs moving a whole lot faster!" Brittany's mouth dropped open a little at this and even Santana raised her eyebrows. But Quinn just worked harder and ignored Coach Sylvester's comment and for this, Santana had to admit she respected her.

Practice eventually came to an end and after a quick shower and a short lecture from Coach Sylvester about how it would be a lot harder to stay on the Cheerios then it had been to get on there, causing Santana to wonder if she was really going to be able to deal with having to practice like that for five days a week. Together they headed back to their dormitory, all moaning about Coach Sylvester but just Quinn and Santana moaning about how sore their legs were, ready to fall asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

**Please review so I know someone out there's reading this and let me know what you think, good/bad whatever :) Anyways thanks for reading :3**


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